IREX recently launched the 13th year of the Eurasian Undergraduate Exchange Program (Global UGRAD [19]) welcoming nearly 170 undergraduate students from across Eurasia for academic study in the United States. UGRAD is a program of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the US Department of State. These talented young people were competitively selected from a pool of almost 6,000 applicants from nearly 200 cities across Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan.
More than 120 American universities and community colleges are hosting UGRAD students for their one year study abroad program in the fields of accounting, agriculture, American studies, business, computer science, criminal justice, economics, education, environmental management, hospitality management, international relations, journalism and mass communication, law, political science, psychology, and sociology.
Established in 1992, the Eurasian Undergraduate Exchange Program (UGRAD), formerly known as the Freedom Support Act Undergraduate Program (FSAU), is designed to foster democratization and economic development in Eurasia through academic exchanges for young adults.
A core part of the UGRAD program includes volunteer work and part-time internships, which allow foreign students to gain practical knowledge of public service and the American workplace. To date, UGRAD students have contributed more than 10,000 volunteer hours to over 200 institutions across the US including American Red Cross, Special Olympics, Head Start, Big Brother Big Sisters of America as well as other community-based organizations.
Each year, over 150 US companies, government offices and nonprofit associations such as Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, American Bar Association, the offices of US Senators and Circuit Court Judges, Office of the Attorney General for Consumer Affairs, among others welcome UGRAD students to intern in their offices as part of the professional development component of the study abroad experience.
A new recruitment season for the 2006 Eurasian Undergraduate Exchange Program (UGRAD) begins this fall. Fellowship Applications will be available on October 1, 2005 and will be due on November 7, 2005. Host University Applications will be available in late October and will be due on January 31, 2006.
